Bio:

“I’ll see home again someday, but it’s your turn right now”

Early life:

Aelbroch was born into a smithing line of the Drakemont clan in northern Mirat. The clan had long ago been blessed with a relic given them by a dragon. The relic, dubbed “the Heart of the Mountain” by the clan due to its location in a cavern in the center of the mountain on which they had made their home, was capable of awakening magic in those who touched it. The Heart had become one of the focuses of life for the Drakemont clan, and was the center of a rite of passage for dwarves and the humans, halflings, half-elves and other races that had founded a village in the valley below the mountain. For the first 35 years of his life, Aelbroch learned smithing at the side of his father, and his letters, early weapons training, faith, and other lessons from the clan as a whole. When he came of age for the rite, he journeyed with the rest of his generation into the Heartshrine, where the Heart of the Mountain was kept, suspended in the center of a number of platforms around it.

The Rite is simple, in terms of the actual ceremony. Those who have not shown magic at that point in life (thus qualifying them to study as wizards) or who are not pledged to one of the gods (qualifying them for cleric or paladinhood) take up positions on the platforms around the Heart. Then, one by one, each reaches out and touches the Heart for a brief period of time, no more than a minute. If they have un expressed magic it awakens then. Those who have arcane magic awoken are typically trained as sorcerers, while others find their magic is tied to nature and are thus druids. Everyone else is usually some form of warrior for the clans, though the paths taken by the valley born are more varied. Aelbroch emerged from the cavern that day as one of 5 sorcerers, parts of his body covered by golden scales. Afterwards, like those who had “awakened” before and with him, he was ushered into the sorcerers school where he was trained to use his gifts. During that time three things were discovered about him. First was his talent for magic connected with fire and earth. The second was his mixture of intense focus and somewhat obliviousness. He was known to spend long idle hours working on tasks or hobbies, and it was difficult to get his attention during that time. Third, it was noticed that he never backed down from fights, whether in sparring practice or on the field assignments that followed his graduation, though he often wound up surrounded in group fights. Still he made it through training and was with the rest of his class when they were awarded the titles of adventurer knights.

Early Career:

While he had the title of adventurer knight, Aelbroch was still something of an apprentice or squire for the next decade. He was sent with groups of other apprentice knights under the eyes of more experienced knights on quests that were minor in the grand scheme of things, but were still tasks that needed doing regularly and were used semi controlled tests and assessments by the older knights. That is not so say these tasks were not dangerous nor potentially fatal, but that was what the older knights were there for. During one of these quests, clearing out undead that were continuously re animated by ancient magic, Alebroch wound up having to fight a pair of giant zombies by himself for a while. He managed to defeat one, burning the walking corpse to an inanimate husk with his firebolts, but the other one got close, and started trying to pound the sorcerer like a piñata. If not for another squire, this one following the path of the ranger, Aelbroch would have been reduced to paste. Otherwise his career proceeded as expected as an adventuring knight, until his second mission after graduating to full knight.

The Dragonblood Hunt :

Aelbrochs first mission was nothing to speak of, just escorting a mid ranked nobleman along the northern border of Mirat to take their place as head of an Adventurer’s keep. Aside form an attempted ambush by drow, the journey was uneventful. Aeblroch’s second mission was to lead a team into drow controlled territory, to a place that was rumored to have been a dragon graveyard, based on documents recovered from the drow in the ambush on the previous mission. Aelbroch’s goal was to find out what the Drow were doing there and either disrupt operations or report back so that an assault could be planned. Things became significantly more complicated than that.

While the initial reconnaissance went well, it was quickly discovered that the drow were experiment with creating magic items from the dragon bones they had uncovered. After a brief debate, the team, perhaps rashly, decided to destroy the latest caravan of item and attempt to eliminate the drop leading the operation. The only reason they considered it a viable plan was the lack of guards, and the nocturnal nature of the drow. They attacked during the day, overwhelming the guards, and setting the wagons of the caravan on fire, along with the tents where the rest of the guards were sleeping. The leaders though proved tougher, and when the smoke cleared, half the team were dead, along the bulk of the row, with the survivors running off for reinforcements. After hastily looting the bodies, Aelbroch led his team at a breakneck pace back to the keep.

Among the items recovered was book containing numerous studies of dragons, pages stolen from genealogical tomes that tracked draconic bloodlines, and references to a race of people with more draconic blood than even sorcerers had. Debates raged in the adventuring keeps for months before it was determined that a full fledged fact finding mission would be too costly, particularly with an impending war against the drow. As such it was determined that one Adventurer Knight would be sent out to seek these dragon blooded, warn them of the drows’ intentions and if possible gain an alliance with them. While this Dragon Seeker would be able to request or demand aid of any Mirat resource, this task would likely take centuries to accomplish, if it was possible, and to keep what ever information was uncovered out of the wrong hands, it was deemed necessary that the Seeker would only rarely be able to return home, if at all. Further debate led to Aelbroch being given this task, as it was he who had found the book on the body of one of the drow mages, and who had retrieved it.

The Quest Begins:

Aelbroch, as per custom for long journeys, was allowed to return to the Dragonmont, to say his farewells and claim what supplies were needed. While he was there, he visited the Heartshrine, and under the light of the Heart of the Mountain, he was able to see runes and maps on some of the loose paper that had been bound to the book. Further study led him to believe that if he could visit other dragon stones, then perhaps he could find more clues. However for the first leg of his journey he had to head away from Mirat. So he decided to join a caravan, and work his way as a guard until he reached a location which held myths about dragons or more lore that could point him in the direction of these dragon blooded. Now he is working his way east, with a halfling ranger and an elven alchemist from Cambria, and a skald of far off Usquabe. Only time will tell if his quest success or fails, but he strides down the road with a smile, and his spells.